


Coming Together

by magusnight



Category: Touhou Project
Genre: F/F, Implied/Referenced Underage Drinking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-28
Updated: 2019-09-28
Packaged: 2020-10-29 16:01:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,876
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20799278
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/magusnight/pseuds/magusnight
Summary: Alice disliked parties-- one could even say she hated them. With the copious amount of alcohol and the complete lack of common sense, even for a place like Gensokyo, grating at her nerves, there wasn't much to redeem them in Alice's eyes. If only there were more... less obnoxious people at these parties.





	Coming Together

Alice couldn’t stand loud parties.

It wasn’t as if she had much of a choice in whether she attended or not. Of course, she could refuse to attend… But a drunken Marisa was a force to be reckoned with; perhaps even more so than her normal state of boisterousness. If Alice wasn’t initially attending a party, then she would be dragged out by the human she called her ‘friend’ on occasions— sometimes, even the shrine maiden accompanied her.

Perhaps dealing with Marisa in her tipsy state was easier than this, Alice mused as she glanced around the shrine. Every time there was a party, the number of youkai and other non-human creatures seemed to grow. Of course, with an increasing number of people, the volume slowly but surely escalated as well. She spotted Reimu, complaining about something or other, her cheeks a dark red hue. And of course, Marisa was sprawled out on her lap, giggling at the shrine maiden’s grumbling.

Most of the people surrounding her were chatting away while sipping sake— or otherwise inhaling it straight out of a gourd. That oni nearby was far too obnoxious for Alice’s tastes. As far as she knew, Patchouli hadn’t followed Remilia and Sakuya to the party… meaning the only other individual she would possibly have a conversation that wasn’t only small talk wasn’t available to speak with.

Alice sighed, and stood from her seat underneath a tree. Shanghai and Hourai soon joined her side, having previously been seated amongst the branches, away from the other guests out of fear they would be trampled on. With a final glance around the party, she began to carefully step through the groups of people, being careful not to step on anything— or anyone, performing a rather awkward maneuver to avoid crushing tails, treading on hair, and stepping on clothing. Alice wasn’t a stranger to leaving early, so perhaps she could evade suspicious glances.

“Heeeeey, Aliiiiiice!”

She froze, and slowly turned, like a deer caught in the headlights. Luckily no one was staring at her… but perhaps in a misfortunate turn of events, Marisa had risen from Reimu’s lap. She was somehow still sober enough to walk in a straight line, and somehow managed to reach Alice without tripping over her own two feet.

“Where are ya’ goin’, it’s so early!” Marisa practically announced as she slung her arm around Alice’s shoulder. She couldn’t help but wrinkling her nose as Marisa laughed, loud and unpleasant to the ears. “Are you tryin’ to go home early ‘cause you’re lonely?”

Before Alice could grasp a chance to reply, she found herself being dragged along by Marisa, to where she and Reimu were seated with Sakuya (strangely separated from Remilia) and another girl she’d never met before. As Marisa plopped directly into Reimu’s lap, Alice found herself tugged down along with her, and barely had a moment to compose herself before shifting away from Marisa, towards the new girl. As quickly as she’d noticed Alice leaving the party, Marisa lost interest in her; returning to drunkenly rambling with Reimu and pointing in the general direction of Youmu, as if spotting her next victim and discussing it happily with her companion. 

Alice turned to Sakuya, only to feel her irritation rise as she saw the smug expression on her face… as well as the faint but noticeable pink emerging from her cheeks. Before Sakuya could open her mouth and perhaps utter something akin to an insult, Alice coughed into her hand. “It’s strange to see you without the vampire,” she observed, and watched as the maid raised her cup to her lips, taking a sip of sake.

“Milady is… flirting,” Sakuya hummed, briefly glancing to her left. As Alice glimpsed in the same direction, she noticed Remilia. Her bat-like wings swayed as she spoke with another youkai of similar height— short pink hair and with a third eye floating beside her.

“That’s Komeiji Satori,” a voice from beside Alice spoke. When she returned her gaze to the small party of five they had formed, she saw the girl seated next to her smiling. “She’s a satori youkai from Old Hell, and…”

She gasped, and her hands flew to her mouth briefly. “Oh! I didn’t introduce myself!” she exclaimed, before turning and bowing her head. Alice couldn’t help but admire her manners, as well as her hair. She had quite a cute frog clip in it… and a strange snake accessory as well. “I’m Kochiya Sanae, shrine maiden of the Moriya Shrine,” she added, causing Alice to lose her train of thought.

“Alice Margatroid. It’s a pleasure,” she spoke, before observing Sanae for another few moments. She wasn’t wearing traditional shrine maiden clothing… but from what Alice had heard from Reimu, the Moriya Shrine had come from the outside world. Perhaps Shinto was becoming modernised there. It wasn’t exactly like Reimu had worn traditional shrine maiden clothing since she first saw her, though, so it was possible that it was just a Gensokyo thing. 

Again, she was brought out of her musings when Sanae began speaking. “I wanted to ask since I saw you coming over…” she trailed off, before reaching out a finger to Shanghai, who was the closer of the two dolls to Sanae. “Did you make these dolls? How do you get them to float like you did?”

Despite herself, Alice perked up. Sanae seemed to notice this, and offered a dazzling smile in encouragement— not that Alice needed much. “This is Shanghai… and yes, I did make her,” Alice confirmed, and gently tugged the string attached to the doll. She bowed to Sanae, delighting her immensely. “I can manipulate dolls and have them do what I want… though some dolls like Shanghai and Hourai here often cooperate without me needing to direct them, due to the magic I use..”

Sanae clapped her hands together, clearly charmed by the dolls accompanying Alice. “They’re wonderful!” she exclaimed, and after a moment, returned to sitting normally as she observed Shanghai. “It’s amazing how much detail you put into them. You don’t see much like this in the outside world nowadays, unless you’re an avid collector…”

Alice’s cheeks heated up slightly as she remembered the sheer amount of dolls she housed in her abode. She quickly searched for a change of subject before Sanae decided to ask any possibly invasive questions— and noticed the lack of alcohol around her. “Oh, you don’t drink?” she questioned, and Sanae grimaced. Alice didn’t miss the glance in Reimu’s direction.

“No… It’s actually not something I enjoy,” she sighed, before seemingly noticing that Alice didn’t carry any sake with her either. Again, she perked up. “You don’t drink either, Alice?”

She confirmed Sanae’s suspicion with a nod of her head, and found herself smiling involuntarily. “No, I don’t. I don’t see the point of drinking until you can barely comprehend what’s happening around you. It’s not fun in any sense, and it only serves to make you look…” she trailed off, and the two found themselves staring at Reimu and Marisa for a few moments; the two too absorbed in their bickering to notice them.

Sanae quickly returned to their conversation, eagerly nodding. “Yes, I agree! There are far too many cons to becoming drunk to enjoy drinking so much!” She beamed at Alice, causing her to smile once again. 

* * *

The two fell into a deep conversation, jumping from topic to topic. Alice was surprised by just how much they both had to talk about. They laughed with each other for a few hours, before Alice began to notice that Sanae’s reactions had become slower. She began yawning in the latter half of their discussion, but they became much more frequent before Alice finally acknowledged them. Her eyes had even began to water up with some of them. “Are you tired, Sanae?” Alice asked, concern evident in her voice. “You shouldn’t push yourself to keep me amused,” she continued.

Sanae shook her head. “I’m fine, really,” she insisted, her posture considerably worse than when the two began conversing. “I’ve stayed up longer before, when I was…” she trailed off, a yawn escaping her mouth before she could stop it. “... in high school,’ she finished, cheeks flushed with embarrassment when she realised Alice’s suspicions weren’t unfounded.

Before Alice could question if Sanae needed help returning home, a shadow loomed over her. She turned at the same time Sanae perked up and exclaimed, “Kanako-sama, Suwako-sama! Are you ready to return to the shrine?”

Unable to tell who was “Kanako” and who was “Suwako” between the imposing, tall woman and the short one with the strange hat, Alice resigned herself to silence. “Yes, Sanae,” the tall one replied, sparing a brief glance at the puppeteer before she offered a hand to assist the shrine maiden in standing. Sanae gratefully accepted, and took a moment to steady herself before waving to Alice.

“You have to come to Moriya Shrine sometime, Alice!” she exclaimed, somehow full of energy despite how exhausted she had appeared to be just moments earlier. “I can serve you some tea, and we can continue from where we left off. And maybe you can bring some of your other dolls?” she added, a hopeful expression appearing on her face.

Alice laughed softly. “I will visit as soon as I find some spare time. Perhaps I’ll bring some tea of my own,” she confirmed, and watched as Sanae grinned before she was led away by Kanako and Suwako. She turned and waved to Alice before they took off, disappearing into the night sky, presumably towards Youkai Mountain.

After a few minutes passed, Alice observed the party once again. She was startled to see that the crowd had significantly thinned out, and that Sakuya had disappeared; along with Remilia. The oni were still around, but even they were beginning to leave… and Reimu and Marisa were sleeping peacefully, tangled in each others clothes and limbs. What was even more surprising, however, was that she had stayed until the what seemed to be the end of the party.

She busied herself with picking up after the party goers, and eventually assisting Youmu with bringing the two snoring humans into the shrine after spotting them preparing to throw both of them over their shoulders. Somehow, they didn’t stir, despite Alice wishing that one of them would awaken so they could help with cleaning.

Eventually, Alice determined that the shrine was clean enough— all the alcohol and dishes used were in the kitchen, and any leftover blankets that people had been sitting on were neatly folded and left on Reimu’s kotatsu. As she finally took flight to return home, she found herself deep in thought, remembering her pleasant exchange with Kochiya Sanae.

It wasn’t often she found herself enjoying a conversation so much, especially one that included little to no talk about magic. Their chat had been filled with much mundane talk, and many questions about life in both Gensokyo and the outside world. And despite talking for at least three hours, the two never seemed to run out of topics. 

Alice resolved to visit the Moriya Shrine within the next few weeks. Perhaps after she obtained a nice blend of herbal or black tea.

**Author's Note:**

> you can't take sanalice away from me
> 
> feat. satori/remilia


End file.
